Gregory Hicks, the deputy to the late Ambassador Christopher Stevens, told congressional investigators in April that a Special Forces team was ordered not to fly to Benghazi by the U.S. Special Operations Command South Africa, reports CBS News:
According to excerpts released Monday, Hicks told investigators that SOCAFRICA commander Lt. Col. Gibson and his team were on their way to board a C-130 from Tripoli for Benghazi prior to an attack on a second U.S. compound “when [Col. Gibson] got a phone call from SOCAFRICA which said, ‘you can’t go now, you don’t have the authority to go now.’ And so they missed the flight … They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it.” […]
Hicks told congressional investigators that if the U.S. had quickly sent a military aircraft over Benghazi, it might have saved American lives. The U.S. Souda Bay Naval Base is an hour’s flight from Libya.
Hicks will be the first “ground-level eyewitness” to speak publicly about the Benghazi attacks at Wednesday’s congressional hearing.
This is going to blow the lid off the Obama Administration.
It wasn't the fact that assets weren't available. It was because the power that be couldn't come to a decision to act.
Men died, they lied and it was all because when the moment of truth came, they vacillated and failed to act.
Quite honestly the entire Joint Chiefs should be forced into retirement. Not only did they participate in the lie, but they also perpetrated a falsehood in the establishment of a new unit that has no military value...it only helps further the impression that units were not in the area to respond.
They didn't fail to act, they didn't want to act.
ReplyDeleteThe Infantryman moves to his designated position, then looks over his shoulder for his Team leaders direction and order. There is a long line of men in this event who looked over their shoulders for the next order from a Higher authority to go or no go the mission. It's clear somewhere along this chain of command an order hopefully was given to stand down, to have hesitated and dithered about never issuing an order at all is damning. In a General officer it's a Court or a Tokarev scenario.
ReplyDeleteJust who and where in that line of command did the decision come from?
An Embassy and it's ambassador makes it a Top of Command decision.
A bad choice is better than no decision at all.
Probably from the Muslim in the White House who could not fire on his own people!! As he said in his book "Dreams Form My Father" he would stand with the Muslims....THIS TIME,he was true to his word!!
ReplyDelete